The invention relates to a coach body of a rail vehicle, which substantially comprises horizontal and vertical walls, wherein the horizontal walls serve to form both a floor and a ceiling and the vertical walls, in particular forming side walls, include cutouts that allow at least one window and one boarding door to be installed.
In rail vehicles, it is well known to embody the horizontal and vertical walls of the coach body by welded steel construction, using rolled, square and hollow steel sections with sheet metal welded directly onto such a skeleton. Depending on its design, such as the number and arrangement of windows and boarding doors, such a coach body is as a rule suitably for only one particular application. Any changes in this design, for instance by a different placement of the boarding doors, means a new static concept and often requires extensive structural adaptations. The aforementioned steel construction of a coach body is also complicated in terms of production and unfavorable from the standpoint of having relatively high vehicle mass.
German Patent Disclosure DE-B 1 158 541 discloses a coach body of a rail vehicle in the prior art that substantially comprises horizontal and vertical walls. The horizontal walls serve to form both a floor and a ceiling. The vertical walls, which in particular form side walls, contain cutouts that allow windows and boarding doors to be installed. The horizontal and vertical walls are formed by half-modules of fiber-reinforced plastic divided sectionally crosswise to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle; each of these modules has a structural length equivalent to the length of the coach body. As a result, very large equipment is needed for manufacturing them (see FIG. 13 of DE-B 1 158 541).